Visitation

The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court order granting a man visitation with his ex-girlfriend’s daughter,
concluding that third-party visitation should only be granted if it is in the best interests of the child.

A trial court’s findings do not “clearly and convincingly support” its decision to terminate a father’s
parental rights to his son based on it being in the best interests of the boy. In fact, the findings show that the father
and son have a bond and often spend time together, the Indiana Supreme Court found Tuesday.

A mother that has prevented her son from seeing his father since 2009 and purposefully disobeyed parenting time orders and
contempt orders must be sanctioned, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

Given continued high levels of divorce and out-of-wedlock births, the role of grandparents continues to be an important source
of stability in some families. Thus, in 2015, grandparent visitation made several appearances on the Indiana court dockets.

A trial court’s multiple contempt orders against a father have been overturned after the Indiana Court of Appeals found
they did not “clearly and distinctly” state the reasons for the contempt citations.

A trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found a wife in contempt of the court’s preliminary order regarding
parenting time and visitation and when it entered a custody arrangement not requested by the parties, the Indiana Court of
Appeals ruled Wednesday.

An Indiana appeals court empathized with a grandmother’s situation, but it ruled the law gave the court no choice but
to strip her of visitation with her granddaughter, whose mother – the grandmother’s daughter – had died.

An Indiana Court of Appeals panel Friday stripped a maternal grandparent of visitation rights, finding she had no standing
to seek visitation. The parents of the child had divorced, and the father remarried shortly after the mother’s death.

Grandparents rightly were awarded visitation with their granddaughter after their daughter died, but the Court of Appeals
ruled Tuesday a trial court abused its discretion in establishing the amount of time grandparents could spend with the child.

A trial court that expressed in the record reservations about the legal status of granting a visitation evaluation sought
by grandparents of children in the care or another grandparent had those doubts confirmed Wednesday when the Court of Appeals
reversed.

A trial court properly ruled on a case as a petition for grandparent visitation, not as a modification of already established
visitation, the Indiana Court of Appeals held Tuesday. The judges affirmed the denial of a paternal grandmother’s request
for visitation.

A man released to probation on a murder conviction but subsequently ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence following
probation violations failed to persuade the Indiana Court of Appeals to reverse denial of his request for parenting time.

Noting that its decision should not be viewed as a punishment for either parent, a trial court denied a mother’s request
to move to California with her son and ordered the boy remain in Indiana with his father. The Indiana Court of Appeals
affirmed Friday, finding the father presented evidence that supported the trial court’s decision.

The Indiana Court of Appeals Thursday upheld a mother’s decision to relocate from Indiana to Georgia with her daughter
before a court hearing was held on the matter. But one judge on the panel found the court’s reliance on the time the
mother and child lived in Georgia to support its decision “makes a mockery” of the relocation statute.

A father who asked the trial court for a continuance to hire a lawyer after he realized his child’s grandparents had
hired an attorney was prejudiced when the request was denied, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday.